A Much Better Day and Some More Pictures

The snoring dog - Yonyo

   I have had a much better day today!  Both today and yesterday my teacher was at the school for the whole day.  I was so happy.  Yesterday she was stressed out and sick, but today she was feeling better and I felt that we were starting to work well together.  Yesterday, to entertain the kids during recess, I brought a photo album with me of pictures of my family and friends.  The kids loved it and had fun guessing who my mom, dad, aunt, grandma, brother, etc. were.  Most of the times they were wrong.  Today I brought books to read to the kids.  When my family was in Fort Bragg this summer, we stopped by a bookstore that was going out of business and I bought 5 children’s books in Spanish for a $1 each.  What a great purchase!  Today during recess I brought out “Donde esta Spot” and read it to a couple children.  They loved it, especially because it has flaps that they can lift to find out where Spot is.  The director and my teacher came over when they saw so about 15 kids crowding around the book and were thrilled that I had bought these books with me.  I showed them the rest and they are planning to make photocopies of them to give to each of the children.  The problem is that the government requires the kindergartens to have kids read a certain amount and know certain Spanish phrases, but does not donate any books.  However, they have donated a TV, DVD player, and legos…something isn’t right.  I told my teacher that she can have all of the books I brought.  She commented that it is so easy to buy books and school supplies in the United States, but it is almost impossible here.  She told me that she started working at this school about a year ago when they decided to open three classes instead of two, so that they could have a separate class for each age group.  When she started teaching she said there was nothing but tables and chairs in the classroom and she has had to make and/or buy everything to put on the walls herself.  Now that I know that, this classroom looks very impressive!
    I really enjoyed talking with my teacher today.  She is from Cusco, but takes a bus from Pisac home so today we rode in the collectivo together.  She told me about how she has a 19 year old daughter and a 2 year old son (and she filled me in on her whole surprise pregnancy with her son…definitely too much information, but it was nice to get to know her!).  She also complained about being an old mom, but I did the math and I think she is about 38...so really not old!  She told me about how she did a similar program to me when she was younger where she stayed with a host family in St. Paul, MN and worked in a school so that she could learn English and teach the kids Spanish and facts about Peru.
    Going back to the classroom, there are two kids in my class, Moises and Diego, who really struggle with numbers (what they are called and what they look like) and counting.  They can get to the number 4 and then they just start saying random numbers, occasionally and with extreme luck, ending up at the right answer (that or by copying).  Today, my teacher moved everyone’s seat around so that we now have an advanced table, an average level table, and a table with the kids that are really struggling.  Moises and Diego’s weakness with math really stood out today because they were not able to copy off their smarter peers who were moved to the advanced table.  I am going to try to come up with an activity that I can do with just the two of them on Monday where we can just work on counting.  I am not sure what to do though because I worked with Moises individually today and the teacher worked with Diego and neither of us were able to make any progress.  Any suggestions are welcome and much appreciated!
    I am very excited that I am starting to get to know my teacher better and that hopefully I can help Moises and Diego.  I am finally excited to go back to school on Monday.  Also, there are two new volunteers starting at the school on Monday, so that will be fun.
    My Spanish teacher canceled my class for this afternoon because she had to go to Cusco.  I am so excited to just have a restful afternoon.  I have been so busy this week and have had such a range of emotions that I am beyond exhausted!  Tomorrow I don’t have anything planned either, so I am excited for my first relaxing weekend since getting here!
 

Cuy (guinea pig) - a Peruvian delicacy

My classroom in San Salvador

The cement mixer the kids at the kindergarten were playing with

I really like this picture of the bottoms of the girls' uniform

More Pictures!

Doing laundry this past Sunday with buckets on the patio!
I will never complain about doing laundry at home again!



Some of my students excited that I had my camera with me!
Left to right: Deigo, Reyna, Ruth, Adriana, y Analy
Most of them wear the school uniform with a wide brimmed hat.



Pisac Ruins Picture

This is me at the Pisac ruins a couple weeks ago.  It was beautiful, but a hard and scary hike!  I tried to post more pictures, but the internet is SO slow.  Hopefully I can post more soon!

Escuela

When I got to the kindergarten yesterday, my teacher was there so I was very relieved. However, that relief ended about three minutes later when my teacher told me to give them puzzles and she would be right back. I think she said she had to go make copies, but I don’t know because I was in the classroom alone with the kids for an hour and a half. It was awful. They did puzzles for half an hour, but what 5 year old can concentrate on one thing for much longer than that? They started fighting, throwing puzzle pieces at each other, destroying various things around the room. Also, I don’t actually know much Spanish, so I guess one kid was asking me to go to the bathroom, but I was distracted and didn’t know what he was saying so I kept telling him to sit down…until he wet his pants. I was so frustrated, and not even candy and my camera were able to settle the kids down this time. I finally got them all outside, figuring they could run around and burn off their energy. Wrong! Being outside was surprisingly worse than being inside. First of all, the kids heard a truck down the street and most went running after it. I tried to get them back, but couldn’t. Eventually they all came back, but my life was not any easier. There is a lot of construction going on at the school and there was an electric cement mixer sitting in the middle of the yard, unprotected, that the kids started playing with. There were kids throwing big rocks into the mixer part, kids playing with the wires and buttons, and kids using the steering wheel on the mixer to spin it around. At first it was only a couple of kids and I was able to stop them, but then more and more came and as they saw me get more and more frustrated they started laughing at me and ganging up on me. I was being bullied by 10 five year olds. I was the only adult in the yard and eventually there was nothing I could do, so I let them play with the machine unsupervised. I felt like crying, but thought I was doing a good job of holding myself together, but apparently not because two girls came over to me where I was sitting down and pointed at my face. I realized that I was crying. It was very stressful, to say the least. I was so mad at the kids, but they’re five and haven’t been taught any better. I was furious with my teacher. I didn’t say anything to her and she didn’t apologize to me. I didn’t know what to do, but luckily I had a care workshop yesterday afternoon which happens every Tuesday afternoon through Projects Abroad and is a time when everyone working in Kindergartens come together and discuss ideas and what has been going on in their classrooms. The care workshop was good. For the first half hour we talked about introducing a game to the schools that will teach kids the “real meaning” of numbers rather than teaching them to memorize what the numbers look like. The second half hour was dedicated to going around the circle (there were about 11 of us) and talking about what’s been going on in our classrooms, both the good and bad. It was nice to hear about what’s been happening at other schools and I was able to share what has been going on at my school. Yessika said that she would come to my school the next day (today) and talk to the teacher. I was so glad! Today, the teacher came to class only half an hour late - a big improvement! The kids watched Dora the Explorer for the first 20 minutes and then I did some adding practice with them on the whiteboard for 10 minutes until the teacher got there. At least this time the teacher apologized for being late, saying that she had a bad headache and stomach bug. Although class ran much more smoothly today and I was able to help out instead of leading, I was still so happy to see Yessika around 10:30. She talked to me a little just to see how today was going, since I had already talked to her yesterday. She said that she had already talked to the director of the school before talking to me and he had said that he would make sure that someone will come and help me if my teacher arrives late or does not come to school. He also said that it is unacceptable for her to be showing up late or not at all so frequently. After talking to me, Yessika talked to my teacher who gave various excuses for being late, I guess most of them health related. She explained to Yessika that she would try to be on time, but sometimes she can’t help it because she has a morning doctor appointment (so why can’t she tell me when an appointment is coming up?!). She also said that the director is already mad at her because of her absences - I don’t know if this means she will try harder to not be absent. Yessika said that she found the conversation promising, but if things don’t change, she will talk to the teacher again next week. It is so nice to have an advocate from Projects Abroad! Also, Yessika and the teacher talked about what kinds of things I might start doing in the class. They talked about having me teach some English words and also bring in fruit and help the kids make fruit salad to teach them about healthy foods. I think that both of those would be fun to lead! I am feeling hopeful about having a better time at this kindergarten, but if it does not work out, it seems like Projects Abroad really listens to complaints and does not have a problem switching placements during a volunteer’s time. So, if this continues, I can always move to another kindergarten. On the other hand, even though my situation is extreme with having my teacher absent so frequently, it seems like it is not unusual for the teachers to be extremely disorganized and to occasionally not show up to class. I think I am starting to adjust to Peruvian educational standards, but it is a big leap from U.S. standards and will take a long time to get used to, and even then I am sure that I will constantly compare Peruvian life to the United States - it‘s so hard not to!

Being the Teacher

September 24, 2012 3 pm

            Today I was completely alone for the first two hours of the kindergarten class.  The kids were fine for the first twenty minutes because they were already watching Alvin and the Chipmunks when I came into the classroom at the start of the day (8:30).  However, after 20 minutes a few children started asking to watch Dora the Explorer instead and before I knew it, the whole class was chanting “Dora, Dora!”  I couldn’t find the Dora DVD, so I threatened that if they weren’t quiet I would turn off the TV - they weren’t quiet (to my dismay) so off went the TV.  A couple of them were sad, but I think most of them didn’t notice because they were so rowdy.  I erased the date that was written on the board from Friday and asked the children to tell me what the day and date were.  They were being loud and crazy, but I eventually, somehow (I’m not sure how) got them to tell me that today was Lunes the 24^th of Septiembre.  After that, I had kids come up one by one to write their names on the board so that they could practice writing and we would have something to do.  I got through ten of the eighteen kids and then they became crazy again and I could not continue with having them write their names.  I started writing letters and numbers on the board and had them tell me what they were.  This worked for a few minutes and then most of the kids started running around the room and I could not figure out how to stop them.  Luckily, yesterday was Student’s Day and my teacher had asked me to buy candy to give to the kids for today’s party, so I opened the candy early and pulled out a handful.  In a strict voice, I told the kids that I had lots of sweets for them, but if they didn’t sit down and be quiet right then, I wouldn’t give them anything.  I have never seen or heard these children sit so still and be so quiet.  It didn’t last long, but they were behaved enough that I was able to write the numbers 1 through 10 on the white board and call up the kids’ one at a time and have them point to the number that I told them to point to.  After each kid came up, I gave them a piece of candy.  After this, I was able to find the Dora DVD and I put that on.  That lasted for about ten minutes and then I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of the kids, which they LOVED!!  They all gathered around me wanting me to take their picture.  So, moral of the story, I will always bring candy and my camera with me to the kindergarten.  I was so happy to see my teacher at 10:30, however I was disappointed because she did not even apologize for being late.  All she said was, “I am so tired from carrying this big cake!”  She was late because she was getting a cake for the Student’s Day party.  I was so pissed.  I wonder if the school is going to rely on this teacher more for random tasks, like buying cakes, since I am here.  Or, if I had not been there, would the kids have been all alone for two hours?  The rest of the day was fine, all three classes joined together and broke a piñata, had a dance party, and ate cake.  And the kids loved me because I continued to take pictures.  Now I am exhausted!  Off to Spanish class, at least I am the student now!

Pizza, Starbucks, Cuy, and Incan Ruins

September 23, 2012 8:30 pm

I spent both Saturday and Sunday in Cusco this weekend.  Saturday, Mariska and I started our day by taking a bus to Cusco at 8:30.  We had the bus stop on the side of the road where there is an entrance to the Tambomachay ruins.  These ruins are comparatively pretty small to the other ruins that we have seen, but still very impressive.  Tambomachay had ceremonial baths that the Incas channeled water to and the water still flows today.  After seeing Tambomachay, we crossed the street to the Puka Pucara ruins, which was either an Incan fort or a stopping point along the main road.  My guide books said that Puka Pucara was nice, but not as good as the other ruins.  I am so glad that I didn´t listen to my guide book and skip this ruin.  I really liked it because it is literally on the side of the main modern road, so I really felt like I was part of two civilizations.  After Puka Pucara, we walked down the side of the main road for a couple miles until we reached Sacsayhuaman (we somehow took the wrong turn and missed the fourth Inca ruin on this path, Qénqo).  Sacsayhuaman is a huge and very impressive ruin.  It was the main fortress in Cusco and is built of gigantic rocks, each weighing more than 300 tons.  Close to Sacsayhuaman is a huge statue of Jesus, which we climbed a hill (passing many alpacas and donkeys on our way) to get to.  From next to this statue there is a great view overlooking Cusco to one side and the Sacsayhuaman ruins.  Standing by this statue, I was reminded again about being in two civilizations in Peru, but this time two religious civilizations.  Peru is a very Catholic country, but the Catholicism here is infused with Inca/Quecha traditions.  Mariska and I talked about this, Jesus, and Judaism as we walked back down to Cusco.  I love interfaith dialogue!

It is a long back down to Cusco and we told other volunteers we would meet them for lunch, so when we reached the outskirts of Cusco, we found a taxi and took a lovely five minute ride to a pizza place by the Plaza de Armas, which is the main plaza in Cusco.  We met about 10 other volunteers in Cusco and each ordered individual pizzas.  It was nice to talk with the other volunteers.  After lunch all twelve of us went to a church a few blocks away from the Plaza.  This church is called Santo Domingo and was a Spanish church which was built on top of Incan Walls in the 1500s.  When there was an earthquake (a few hundred years later?), most of the Spanish walls fell, but the Incan walls were revealed.  It was interesting to see the Incan walls surrounded by Spanish art.

After visiting Santo Domingo, it started to rain, so we went to Starbucks for overpriced coffee.  It was funny to be in the Starbucks because I could have been anywhere in the world.  The people at the cash registers spoke perfect English and there were only foreigners (most of whom were white) inside.  We hung out and talked in the Starbucks for a couple hours, which was nice, but I don´t want to go back to Starbucks in Peru again!

Today, Sunday, we went back to Cusco and met up with one other volunteer. Tom, who had found a place that serves cuy (guinea pig – a Peruvian delicacy).  Mariska wanted to try it and I went along for the ride.  Tom and Mariska ordered half a cuy to share, which was served with claws and teeth.  I had fun taking pictures of it.  And they made me try a miniscule piece.  It tasted pretty strong, but I´m not sure what it tasted like.  They couldn´t figure out if it tasted more like chicken, lamb, or fish.  The skin was impossible for them to cut through and we had fun watching Tom taste the brain of the cuy.  We sat by a nice Peruvian family, who showed us that we had to rip the cuy with our hands and pick up big pieces of meat – silverware is for wimps!  I was glad to be part of this experience without having to eat the cuy!  It was very authentic because it was a crowded restaurant and we were the only tourists.

It was a great weekend!  Got to go!

Thank You!

Hello Family and Friends,
I just wanted to say thank you for reading my blog and thanks for all of the wonderful comments and e-mails I have received!  It is hard to respond to everyone individually, so I am sorry, but thanks for reading and I love hearing from you!

Today was a good day - it started with my first hot shower in three weeks, so what could be bad!  My teacher was in class today and my Spanish class was good.  And I am excited to explore more Inca ruins around Cusco tomorrow.

More sometime soon!
Love, Abby